Zero Day

From David Baldacci - the modern master of the thriller and number-one worldwide best-selling novelist - comes a new hero: a lone Army Special Agent taking on the toughest crimes facing the nation. John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigative Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

It was nice to have a woman voice a woman's role...but this narrator had such an annoying voice. Nails on a chalkboard. And the main narrator's tone was monotone...I can't believe these people got paid for this. They made a long story even longer.

I usually like David Baldacci and Zero Day got good reviews but the character development in this was terrible...from the main character on down. And could this get any longer?! I listen to mysteries while I run...so I am generally not critical of any audiobook so the fact that I'm so outraged by this means it's BAD. The experience was painful. I lost my place over the course of a run and skipped 20 chapters ahead..and still understood EXACTLY what was going on. I hadn't missed a thing. Glacially boring. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your credit ...or your money.

The Art of Mental Training: A Guide to Performance Excellence, Collector's Edition

Achieve the champion mindset for peak performance. Reach new levels of success and mental toughness with this ultimate guide. Learn the "Science of Success" and prepare to excel. In this concise and highly acclaimed training guide, Peak Performance Coach DC Gonzalez teaches a blend of unique mental training technologies, sports psychology essentials, and peak performance methods that are effective and motivational. Get ready to increase your self-belief, self-confidence, and mental toughness using this powerful guide designed to help you reach new levels of success, sports performance and personal development.

I would not try another book from this author. I buy audible books to listen to while I run. So as long as the narrator and substance is not deadly boring or useless I will try to get through it. There is nothing revelatory here. Nothing new, even. I give Gonzalez credit for trying to take material you can find in any book on self help buddhism and trying to give it some zip by adding personal anecdotes. Sadly, the anecdotes of how he utilized the lessons in his own life did not ring true...at all. In fact, some of his recollections of conversations he had seemed like they had been dipped in Disney magic....a happy ending in every situation...evil, selfish people transformed by simple gestures toward understanding and friendship. It sounded like hooey to me.

Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence

Your voice says a lot about you. Based on the tone and expression of your voice alone, your listeners may make up their minds about you before they even process the meaning of your words. And if what you say is at odds with how you say it, they can miss your message altogether. As important as our voices are, few of us know how to use them to their full potential. Full Voice offers a fun, tested method to harness the power of your voice to become a more effective and flexible communicator.

I thought this woman was supposed to be an expert in vocal presence. She has NO vocal presence. SHe sounds like a breathy porn star who speaks REALLY SLOWLY. This might have been helpful in the 70's and 80's but it seemed very dated...even though the author tried to give the book a modern edge by referencing current pop culture icons.

Her Royal Spyness: A Royal Spyness Mystery

Georgie, aka Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, cousin of King George V of England, is penniless and trying to survive on her own as an ordinary person in London in 1932. So far she has managed to light a fire and boil an egg... She's gate-crashed a wedding... She's making money by secretly cleaning houses... And she's been asked to spy for Her Majesty the Queen.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

It is the summer of 1950 and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw.

Bought this because I bought into the great reviews. I generally can suffer my way through inane plots and sometimes even less than engaging narrators. But I can't get past the first two chapters...and at this point I've tried twice. I kept thinking I missed something..maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention..then I realized that it was just a dud.

Would you ever listen to anything by Alan Bradley again?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Really high childish voice.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie?

Drinking Midnight Wine

When Toby Dexter falls for the woman on the train, the woman with the most perfect mouth in the world, he little realises that she isn't quite human: She lives in the magical world that exists alongside our own. And when he follows her to ask her out, he accidently slips from his own world, Veritie, into hers. She warns him that it's a dangerous thing to be a mortal in the magical world of Mysterie and that he must not fall in love with her: She's much older than she looks and mortal must not love immortal.

Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, Book 19

Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song “Creole Belle” on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the memory of Tee Jolie and goes in search of her sister, who later turns up inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf.

Clearly James Lee Burke has a big fan base. I was drawn in by all the stars. I've now tried to get through this audiobook several times. I wish I could return it. I'm an audible member member b/c I love good stories. This is tragic. And Will Patton isSO boring. I need to write down his name so if i see it I'll know not to download it.

Would you ever listen to anything by James Lee Burke again?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Yes. Will Patton's attempt to mimic a woman's voice is a joke. Burke needs to find a better narrator. That southern accent is so annoying! I couldn't keep listening

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Fallen

There's no police training stronger than a cop's instinct. Faith Mitchell's mother isn't answering her phone. Her front door is open. There's a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother's house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn't see is her mother.

Would you try another book from Karin Slaughter and/or Shannon Cochran?

I am a huge fan of mysteries/thrillers and am not hypercritical. This book was terrible. One dimensional characters all around. I have worked around law enforcement for the past 20 years and there was nothing believable about the plot. The worst part of it was the southern twang of the narrator. The women sound like men. The men sound just like the women. This book could have benefitted from hiring more narrators…or Simon Vance. Truly a waste of time. I kept thinking it would get better because of the good reviews…but alas. I listen to books while I run..I kept switching over to Pandora because I couldn't stand listening to this dross.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

the most interesting? hard to say

Did Shannon Cochran do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

Why are you captivated by some people but not by others? Why do you recall some brands yet forget the rest? In a distracted, overcrowded world, how do certain leaders, friends, and family members convince you to change your behavior? Answer: fascination, the most powerful way to influence decision-making. It's more persuasive than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. And it all starts with seven universal triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust.

10th Anniversary: The Women's Murder Club

Detective Lindsay Boxer's long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby is nowhere to be found. Lindsay discovers that not only is there no trace of the criminals - but that the victim may be keeping secrets as well.

James Patterson is lucky he can coast on his reputation. I should never would have purchased this "book." Carolyn McCormick is the WORST narrator. She speaks SO slowly. Her female voices make all the women sound like high pitched whiners.. They also all sound the same. Her male impersonation is even worse.

I might have been able to muster up a few more stars for the story line but McCormick just ruined the experience for me. Patterson should rehire a new narrator and re-voice all of his Women's murder club books.

The Safe Man

Like his father before him, Brian Holloway is a safe man. That is, his specialty is opening safes. Every job is a little mystery, and he has yet to encounter a lock he can't break or a box he can't crack. But the day Holloway gets called in to open a rare, antique safe in a famous author's library, his skills open a door that should have remained closed.

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